1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information management technique and more particularly to an information management technique for handling and prioritizing and filtering information from external and internal sources, such as, Internet and Intranet sources, and forwarding same to a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of the Internet and Intranet for the sharing and forwarding of information has increased tremendously over the past few years. Unfortunately, it has not reached its full potential partly due to the fact that there is too much information available. That is, upon requesting information from the Internet or from an Intranet, a user is inundated with information. Much of the information is only peripherally related to the topic requested by the user and therefore superfluous. Accordingly, the user must review this large amount of information to locate the relevant information desired by the user.
European Patent Publication 1,348,884 B1, published PCT Application No. WO97/27534, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,369,570, and 5,544,354 each disclose attempted solutions to the problem.
For example, PCT Published Application No. WO97/27534 discloses a system for navigating an information service which allows a user to navigate an on-line information system using a plurality of different screens. While simplifying the search of a user for relevant information, it nevertheless requires the user to review multiple screens and sub-screens to find the desired information.
Similarly, European Patent Publication No. 0,348,884 B1creates navigators adjacent a main image on a screen to allow a user to navigate through the maze of information via these navigators to reduce the amount of searching needed to locate the desired information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,570 discloses a method for continuous real-time management of heterogeneous interdependent resources. Multiple distributed resource engines are used to maintain timely and precise schedules and action controls, identifying and responding to rapidly changing conditions in accordance with predetermined requirements, relationships and constraints.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,354 discloses a user interface which provides for accessing a large database of information using both browsing and search behaviors. As with the above-noted PCT published application, it is necessary for the viewer to navigate through multiple screens to find the desired information.
The object of the present invention is to provide an information management technique which includes gathering and storing data from a plurality of sources and filtering and prioritizing the gathered and stored data. The filtered and prioritized data is then packaged and delivered to an end user. The data is filtered and prioritized in a plurality of layers arranged sequentially, a first layer having a broadest categorization of data and each subsequent lower layer having a narrower categorization of data than its adjacent higher layer.